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C-SPAN Debate: Is Rush Good for America?

RUSH: Okay, on C-SPAN today, I, ladies and gentlemen, was essentially blamed for the partisan divide, the anger, the lack of people being nice, whatever. It's all my fault. C-SPAN lit up this morning when a caller suggested the way to fix America is to get rid of Rush Limbaugh. I don't know what they intended on C-SPAN, but whatever, they had to broom it because for the next hour that's all anybody called about. Washington Journal was the show. The host, Pedro Echevarria. Viewer calls on "Ideas for fixing Congress," was the topic. Have you ever noticed that we don't do topics here? We never do topics. One of my early problems in the early days of broadcasting were formulas.

The program director said, "Well, what are your topics gonna be?"

"I don't know. I don't do topics."

"What do you mean, you don't do topics?"

"I comment on the news. You know, real life, real time."

"No, no, no, no. You've got to do topics."

"Why? I don't want to do topics. I don't want pigeonholed on Tuesday to carrot cake recipes when something may be breaking out there."

"There have gotta be topics, and you've gotta have guests."

Right, and then when I told 'em no guests, it became a challenge. So, anyway, Washington Journal does topics, and their topic today was, "Fixing Congress." Can you imagine, folks, if I, at the end of the program today, said, "Be with us tomorrow, folks, 'cause our topic tomorrow will be ideas for fixing Congress!" How many of you would be here? Very few. You can see the C-SPAN topic didn't last one call. All it took was this call and the whole topic was blown to smithereens.

C-SPAN CALLER: Congress is in a mess right now. Uhhh, but I think Republicans take most of them marching orders -- and this isn't, uh, a slam. I think they take most of their marching orders from Limbaugh. And so you get talk radio off the air, get him off the air so they can't run everything by him, and we'll be a lot better... Even America will be a lot better off. I don't think Republicans can do one thing without running it by him or getting his input -- and, of course, he hates Obama. They don't do what he wants done as a whole, then he spends three hours on radio, whatever it is, criticizing, bashing.

RUSH: Okay, so there it was.

It was put out there first call the day on C-SPAN.

The Republicans don't do diddly-squat 'til they run everything by me. So you gotta get me off the air and then the Republicans start being the nice people they really are. (summarized) "Republicans can't do one thing without running it by Limbaugh or getting Limbaugh's input. Of course he hates Obama, so if they don't do what he wants done as a whole and he spends three hours on the radio criticizing 'em and they can't get anything done."

Where do you think this guy heard that?

Where do you think this guy heard it?

He obviously believes it. Where do you think this guy picked up this idea that I run the Republican Party in Washington and that they run everything by me, that nothing happens there unless I okay it? Where do you think this guy picked that up? Because he doesn't think of it on his own. There's no way he thought of it on his own. Here's the next call. Pedro Echevarria: Viewer Calls on Ideas for Fixing Congress.

So after Lee from Indiana called, we had Phil from South Carolina.

C-SPAN CALLER: ...I'm gonna slam 'em before Rush gets chance to, who think we should limit talk radio. People need to get the vote educated, and education can come from a lot of different areas. Talk radio? Is Rush Limbaugh always right? Far from it. But the idea that to have an opinion and to think about it and pay a little attention to what's going on around you is bad? Certainly Limbaugh has helped to quash some bad ideas that have come down the pike in Congress by getting up on his soapbox and letting people know what's going on.

RUSH: So it didn't take long the Dittoheads came out in force. I mean, Lee from the Indiana was a sole survivor in a sense. He was the only guy. He had a couple of calls that just basically echoed and parroted him, but the Dittoheads came out in force to defend this silly notion that I run the Republican Party and that everything is run through me. "Is Limbaugh always right? Far from it." This guy's wrong about one thing, 'cause he knows my accuracy rating is 99.7%. I'm "almost always right 99.7% of the time." So I'm not always right and he understands this.

Next is Randy from Wisconsin.

C-SPAN CALLER: The guy calls in about Rush Limbaugh. Rush Limbaugh's got a huge audience. Rush Limbaugh tells the truth. There's a lot of stations that tell the truth, and this is a free country. If you don't want to listen to Rush Limbaugh, don't listen to him. But I do, because he's got it right.

ECHEVARRIA: (haltingly) The -- the caller who talked about Mr. Limbaugh to begin with talked about the sway that he thought that he had over Congress. Do you think he has not that much power over decision-making processes in Congress?

C-SPAN CALLER: He has no power over Congress. He has an opinion. It's just his opinion of what he sees and what he reports. It's just a radio talk show. You know, if you don't like him, don't listen.

RUSH: That is Randy from Wisconsin. See, these people are smart. You people in this audience are smart. You're critical and independent thinkers. You're not mind-numbed robots. The mind-numbed robot of this exercise is this poor guy from Indiana named Lee who's simply repeating the drivel and insanity that he sees on left-wing websites out there. Stop and think: How ridiculous is it? All you have to do is listen here one day and you find out how often the House Republicans do not agree with me. (sigh) It's absurd.

One more, Victor from Indiana.

C-SPAN CALLER: I think we need to fix Congress. We need more radio stations such as Russ Limbo. (sic) But not, you know, all Republicans. Make it Democrat, make it independent, and whatever so that they can tell on Congresses what Congress is doing.

RUSH: "We need more Russ Limbos! We need all kinds of Russ Limbos. We need Democrat Russ Limbos and independent Russ Limbos!" I'm all for that, but there's only one. It can't be. Sorry.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: You know, it actually would be pretty cool if the Republicans ran everything by me before they did anything. Can you imagine? Every morning when we arrive there's a packet from the Republicans in Washington, and it contains whatever agenda items, and they want my sign-off or approval on.